Recycled Watch-Wear Arthropods and Insects

From experimenting in the creative field and exploring your horizonz, one thing remains certain: anyone has the power to deviate from conventional tasks and routine in the pursuit of creativity and innovation. Justin Gershenson-Gates is a prime example of this reality.

Justin Gershenson-Gates is the mastermind who breathed life into ‘A Mechanical Mind’, his calling and practice in life. Justin Gershenson-Gates works presently works with watch gear parts, recycling these spare parts and magnificently utilizing them in his far from ordinary jewelry designs. It’s no surprise that jewelry design is a discipline that follows a great deal of out of the box thinking, particularly with regards to contemporary design that stems away from the tradition crafting of accessories and ornamentation. What truly sets Justin Gershenson-Gates’s work apart is his fascination and mastery of all things mechanical.

Justin Gershenson-Gates grew up being exposed to the mechanical structure of things, being the son of a ‘gearhead’ and the grandson of a railroad man. As a child he would frequently and without fail take apart all of his toys with the purpose of attaining an understanding as to how they work. This approach to things has stuck with Gershenson-Gates till today. His primary tool and medium are dead old watches which he disassembles and polishes, subsequently rearranging their spare parts and widgets to reveal these whimsical designs.

In this particular series, Gershenson-Gates manufactures these small sculptural arthropods and insects by hand, out of the interior elements of watch anatomy and light bulbs. Each separate fragment has been soldered together with the other without the use of any glue. The use of the light bulb works brilliantly with the anatomy of the insects; take a look at the abdominal area of the spiders below. Each individual piece took long and consecutive hour work sessions, being completed in a single stretch as the detail is too consistent to suffer any breaks – truly committed artistry of mechanics in design. Have a look at some of his work below.